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Abstract:

The paper is focused on Italian Neorealism, or, more precisely, on some of its exemplars from literature and cinema. In section 1, the author gives a general overview of Neorealism, discusses Neorealism’s take on tradition and novelty (some of the critics considered the new art to be merely a retrospection of verism; however, the majority disagreed with them while acknowledging verism’s importance as a reference point), and indicates a distinctive feature of the movement: a commitment to social and political agenda, addressing the subjects of “ethical and political order” (A. Asor Rosa), which became especially relevant after the war. Neorealism’s civil and moral components revived the discussion of whether art should be socially engaged, of the relationship between the work of art and ideology. In the case of Neorealism, being socially engaged doesn’t mean to be written in accordance with someone else’s wants — rather, it means a commitment to one’s own ideal, a natural reaction towards past events. The rest of the paper (from section 2 to section 4) examines specific works: some of them (for example, E. Vittorini’s novel Men and Not Men) are widely known, whereas others (A. Vergano’s movie The Sun Still Rises, B. Fenoglio’s novel A Private Affair) have been taken into consideration only recently. Although these authors approached the topic of the Italian Resistance in different ways (Vergano, Fenoglio and I. Calvino are far from creating a manifesto-like, ideological myth of the Resistance, which Vittorini is quite attracted to), their assessment of the past events was virtually identical and categorical, their novels were characterized by a polemical and political tone, which was typical for the postwar period and defined Italian Neorealism.

Keywords: Italian Neorealism, socially and politically engaged literature (letteratura d’impegno), Calvino, Vergano, Rosselini, Vittorini, Fenoglio.